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[levious]

yeah, DQ IV had to have been greenlit before DQVII's release since it was advertised in the manual of DQVII.

 

[jarrod]

I thought I remember them saying that they were disappointing in DQ7's numbers?

Yep, though for whatever reason Enix was expecting huge sales simply because it's huge in Japan. A lack of marketing and the suspect visuals made sure the game would only be a moderate success at best (more in line with Lunar and Breath of Fire rather than Final Fantasy or Pokemon). Still, the numbers were "good enough" unlike Torneko and Bust-A-Groove (evidently).

And wouldn't SO3 be their big release this year? They were slow translators and if they'd held out till the Directors Cut it wouldn't be out till this year either.

Naw, both Star Ocean and Drakengard (and likely DWM3) would've released last year had the merger not taken place. Enix USA had even officially announced SO3 at E3 2002 as a tba 2003 release. DQ5, FMA and Slime would've been their games for this year then probably.

SO3 wasn't originally delayed for the Director's Cut, but rather to space out Square Enix USA's releases (FFX-2 was deemed "more important", also likely why FFCC was delayed). They switched to the Director's Cut because of the massive delay, not the other way around.

They just need to get to work on a new one. Metro made the Britney Dance Beat which was alot of fun. Outside of DQ, Bust a Move are my favorite Enix games.

Maybe Enix/Metro should look into celebrity tie ins for a future BAM/G then? It might make things a better sell outside Japan?

 

[jarrod]

yeah, DQ IV had to have been greenlit before DQVII's release since it was advertised in the manual of DQVII.

True, but Enix USA was keeping the release going anyway after the DQ7 numbers came in. 200k+ for a game like DQ7 is hardly bad either, especially with little advertising, rough visuals and so late in PS1's lifecycle.

 

[ferricide]

if anyone on this board actually thinks squenix isn't going to publish dragon warrior VIII here, you are a total fucking moron.

 

[levious]

who in the world said that?

 

[jarrod]

if anyone on this board actually thinks squenix isn't going to publish dragon warrior VIII here, you are a total fucking moron.

Concern seems to be more over DQ5 than DQ8. But thanks for the contribution.

 

[ferricide]

Concern seems to be more over DQ5 than DQ8. But thanks for the contribution.

hey. i try to help.

yeah, i understand the concern over V, but since i'm incredibly apathetic about it i don't really care. ^_^ funny, because i used to like DQV on SFC a lot. DWVII just crushed my soul and made me sick of DQ.

 

[Duke Juan the Beast]

True, but Enix USA was keeping the release going anyway after the DQ7 numbers came in. 200k+ for a game like DQ7 is hardly bad either, especially with little advertising, rough visuals and so late in PS1's lifecycle.

200k is very poor if Enix were expecting numbers well north of 500k or even up to a million. It is also very poor if you take into consideration the possibility Enix expected DQ7 to restablish the Dragon Quest/Warrior franchise outside of Japan (hence scheduling a quickish DQ4 release to capitalize). IMO, it's probably best DQ7 didn't sell well, unless Enix wanted NA gamers to associate DQ with ancient graphics, tedious gameplay, and plots so thin they would make a skeleton blush. </bait>

I would think it's in S-E's best North American DQ interests to hold out until DQ8, pump the hell out of it to make sure it sells big and therefore rekindles interest in the brand, and then bring out DQV (possibly bundled with another remake to make up for lost time, DQ4 maybe?) to capitalize on autosales to a large, newly born, and appreciative fanbase.

 

[dark10x]

SO3 wasn't originally delayed for the Director's Cut, but rather to space out Square Enix USA's releases (FFX-2 was deemed "more important", also likely why FFCC was delayed). They switched to the Director's Cut because of the massive delay, not the other way around.

Regardless, there was a LOT of additional work that had to be done in order to release Star Ocean 3 over here (had they stuck with the original version)...it wasn't just translation.

 

[jarrod]

I would think it's in S-E's best North American DQ interests to hold out until DQ8, pump the hell out of it to make sure it sells big and therefore rekindles interest in the brand, and then bring out DQV (possibly bundled with another remake to make up for lost time, DQ4 maybe?) to capitalize on autosales to a large, newly born, and appreciative fanbase.

I'd agree with that. Hopefully Arte Piazza is working on a DQ6 remake for a potential Dragon Warrior bundle in the future. It'd also be nice if Nintendo published Slime Morimori in the US to coincide with DQ8's US release in 2005/2006.

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

I wrote up some impressions post-E3:
http://www.gamedaily.com/playstatio...=00001_00509_01

and in those impressions we find:

That's right, Takashi Tokita's Musashi series is getting a much-needed update in Samurai Legend Musashi, releasing sometime in 2005.

despite the fact that Tokita had nothing to do with the first Musashi. More fact checking please!

Also, re: the release schedule, where's Ambrosia Odyssey?

 

[ferricide]

I would think it's in S-E's best North American DQ interests to hold out until DQ8, pump the hell out of it to make sure it sells big and therefore rekindles interest in the brand, and then bring out DQV (possibly bundled with another remake to make up for lost time, DQ4 maybe?) to capitalize on autosales to a large, newly born, and appreciative fanbase.

yes, i imagine this is the thought process square enix is ascribing to as well. make a splash with the series, and then once you have that fanbase built up, sell the weird crap to it. it makes a hell of a lot of sense -- if DWVIII is popular, DWV is going to sell a ton more copies than if they just release it now.

 

[speedpop]

Man what they really need to do is to hire Quintet to develop another game.

I don't care what anyone says, but I love Terranigma to death. It was crack. A pity the Quintet homepage hasn't been updated in like years (or at last I checked which was months ago).

Square hired yakuza to deal with them, Illusion of Gaia/Time really ate into FFVI sales.

 

[evilromero]

Yeah, at this point I want Dragon Quest V far more than Toruneko 3 Advance. Also since I've beaten and exhausted every possible aspect of Slime Morimori I don't care if they release it in english or not. The game is far too playable in Japanese unlike one of the more dialogue-centric titles in the series.

From all the guides and movies I've seen DQV looks amazing. It is how DQVII should've looked. And the music is fucking great.

 

[Mejilan]

I refuse to believe that US GBAs are getting a Torneko game but not DQM3 or Slime MoriMori.

 

[Shouta]

Enix USA was quite pleased with DQ7`s sales IIRC. Paul Handelman (sp?) (Enix USA president) was quite happy IIRC with how it was doing on the first as he went around to various stores here in Seattle checking up on how the game did (and subsequent weeks).

Anyhoo, Enix is getting the shaft here bleh. Stupid Square USA rawr!

 

[evilromero]

I think Enix made a mistake by not releasing Dragon Quest: Caravan Heart in the US. It is a fantastic title. I'm at the end of Chapter 3 and I am totally enthralled. This is the type of game US gamers would've eaten up. I mean, Nintendo releases Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Golden Sun to a resounding success and Enix (of course now Square Enix) wouldn't do Caravan Heart? It was the perfect game for the US lineup.

 

[jarrod]

I think Enix made a mistake by not releasing Dragon Quest: Caravan Heart in the US. It is a fantastic title. I'm at the end of Chapter 3 and I am totally enthralled. This is the type of game US gamers would've eaten up. I mean, Nintendo releases Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Golden Sun to a resounding success and Enix (of course now Square Enix) wouldn't do Caravan Heart? It was the perfect game for the US lineup.

Problem being, Enix USA was killed before they had the chance. And Square Enix USA seems afraid of carts, leaving other publishers (Nintendo of America & Disney Interactive) to distribute their GBA wares so far. I wonder if they'll take the plunge themselves with DS cards (being significantly cheaper to produce than GBA carts and allowing post production writing)?

I'm hoping someone like UbiSoft or Atlus USA swoops in and rescues the GBA DQ spinoffs.

 

[Meier]

Was the new Brave Fencer game playable at E3? How was it?

Poor gameplay (waaaaaay too easy) and perhaps the most pixelated graphics I've ever seen on the PS2. In a word, hideos.

 

[jarrod]

Also, re: the release schedule, where's Ambrosia Odyssey?

Not yet announced for US release. Don't know about Japan, but I think there's other JP games missing.

 

[Diomedeskun]

Dragon Warrior IV PSX was initially abandoned because the developers, Heartbeat, quit making games. Enix let the Japanese success, based mainly on it being the only Dragon Quest in quite a few years because of the ridiculously long developemnt time, get to their heads. Dragon Quest VIII looks amazing, but VII was a sub-par early PSX style set of backgrounds with sprites swiped from Dragon Quest III for SNES for the villagers and low animation 8 way sprites for the party. Only the battles looked decent, and they didn't have the party visible. It is no wonder that, combined with the incredibly slow gameplay, it didn't sell all that well.

 

[Pellham]

Only the battles looked decent, and they didn't have the party visible. It is no wonder that, combined with the incredibly slow gameplay, it didn't sell all that well

Yet the game was the biggest selling PSX game ever in Japan. Your argument about its quality is either ridiculous and stupid or you are implying americans are morons for being picky about graphics (which is what I would argue).

 

[ferricide]

Yet the game was the biggest selling PSX game ever in Japan. Your argument about its quality is either ridiculous and stupid or you are implying americans are morons for being picky about graphics (which is what I would argue).

you're totally ignoring the nostalgia factor... the game is IMO boring, slow, and laughably ugly. it's not just that it has bad graphics; it is probably the worst looking RPG on the system besides really early shit like beyond the beyond. battles do look pretty decent thanks to nicely animated sprites.

i think what shot it in the foot with americans was just a combination of a lot of things: the bad visuals, the utterly archaic gameplay, the poorly-presented and unegaging story (telling it as a bunch of semi-unrelated vignettes would've been a challenge) and the fact that mainstream western RPG gamers use FF (rightly or wrongly) as the standard to which RPGs are held.

on the other hand, japanese use DQ.

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

DQ7 also has almost zero load times, which does a lot to mitigate its graphical deficiencies in my opinion. (many of the backgrounds look pretty nice anyway)

 

[isamu]

Man what they really need to do is to hire Quintet to develop another game.

I don't care what anyone says, but I love Terranigma to death. It was crack.

Hi Speedpoop. Is Terranigma the same game as "Tenchi-Sozo" and "The Creation of Heaven and Earth"? If so, is the rom that's floating with around with English text, a translation of the Japanese game, or the U.K. release that Nintendo Published in Europe?

 

[jarrod]

Hi Speedpoop. Is Terranigma the same game as "Tenchi-Sozo" and "The Creation of Heaven and Earth"? If so, is the rom that's floating with around with English text, a translation of the Japanese game, or the U.K. release that Nintendo Published in Europe?

Same game, Terranigma is the UK version Nintendo released (not a fan translation). It's also worth noting that Nintendo of America went so far as to get rights to release Tenchi Sozo (as well as Tactics Ogre) here but backed out last second.

 

[isamu]

Same game, Terranigma is the UK version Nintendo released (not a fan translation). It's also worth noting that Nintendo of America went so far as to get rights to release Tenchi Sozo (as well as Tactics Ogre) here but backed out last second.

Thanks for the reply J. That clears it up. a big fat -1 to Ninty for pulling out at the last second :scrotumpunch:

 

[LEBRON KING JAMES]

not much of a release schedule. only thing it says is tbd on mostly all da games

 

[AniHawk]

a big fat -1 to Ninty for pulling out at the last second :scrotumpunch:

FREAKING BASTARDS! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THEM!?

 

[Belfast]

+ Front Mission Online (PlayStation 2, PC: TBD)


Mmmm....just good to know it'll be on the PC, too. After FFXI, I was kind of hoping S-E would continue to support the PC with its playonline-related products, but at the same time I wasn't entirely sure. But its comforting to know, nonetheless.

 

[jarrod]

Well, the new EGM hints that DQVIII will actually release before FFXII here in 2005 as well as Japan. I'd take DQVIII in the spring (with a simultaneous Slime Morimori GBA release) and a DQV/Torneko3 bundle in the fall.